This is a blog about high-def indie filmmaking and Web 2.0 (and occassionally their intersection).
Both areas excite me and are reaching inflection points.
Web 2.0 is perhaps better called the “read/write web“. It takes web content creation out of the hands of “web masters” and puts it into the hands of web masses. We’ve gone from passive readers of web content to “writers”–in blogs, wikis and Facebook “wall posts”; and on YouTube and podcasts.
Web 2.0’s application to business is very interesting. Recently I built an enterprise wiki for a startup–and understand its revolutionary potential. Inexpensive hosted apps have the potential to boost productivity and collaboration–ripping knowledge out of point-to-point emails and MS Office docs and exposing it around the enterprise, easily found through indexing and tags.
And speaking of bloatware, I have seen the light, and MS Office’s days are doomed. You all know about Google Docs, but just wait until they release (any day now?) a revamped JotSpot as their enterprise wiki offering (for free). And for design elegance and ease of use–which trumps Google Docs word processor–check out Buzzword. It rocks. It just works. It’s no wonder they were just bought by Adobe.
In the realm of film, the tools of production are now a fraction of the cost they were a decade ago. “High definition” is now for the masses. Four years ago, I shot a feature in Tokyo in high-definition on one of the first HDV cameras released in the world (pre-ordered from Yodobashi Camera). And in February April 2008, I’ll be the proud owner of a Red One Digital Cinema camera (Reservation #1304), a digital camera whose output is as good as 35mm film. I’m aiming to shoot a feature on my Red in late 2008, and edit it in my home studio on Final Cut Pro.
While the revolution in production that started a decade ago with DV accelerates, it’s only one half of the solution. As Francis Coppola recently said in an interview, “The movie business is a bad business to be in…. If you don’t control distribution, you’re dead…The movie business isn’t even a business, it’s a joke”.
Here again, the internet potentially holds the key. What needs to happen is that content can be easily downloaded to the home theater–preferably in high definition and with some sort of rights management–and the content creator paid, with the fewest possible middlemen. Startups like Jaman hold promise, as does Adobe Flash 9 high def and YouTube high def. Bloggers Scott Kirsner and Mike Curtis and tracking this phenomenon of democratization of film delivery over the internet.
So this blog will focus on the relatively disparate topics of Web 2.0 and indie filmmaking (especially with a Red camera).
Feel free to comment on any posts or contact me directly at dan.carew@kandariver.com.
Professionally, I recently left adidas Asia, where I was Director of Business Systems, to start my own IT consultancy, Kanda River Limited. I’m available for consulting in both the IT coaching and project management arena, as well as the 4K (ultra high-def) digital film making arena. For more on my professional background, please visit my LinkedIn profile.
Earlier this year, I completed a 72-minute feature, “Indebted”, which we’re trying to enter into festivals. Stay tuned for the web site of Kanda River Productions, launching in early 2008, which will feature info about and a trailer for “Indebted”.
